Sooners Top Tar Heels in Game One of CWS Finals

Saturday, June 20

Omaha, Neb.

2 p.m. CT

University of Oklahoma

42-22

North Carolina

53-13-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Oklahoma	2	0	1	4	0	1	0	0	1	9	14	0
North Carolina	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	7	1

Deiten Lachance rounds the bases after hitting a home run against UNC in game one of the CWS Championship Series

Lachance homered twice and drove in three in OU's 9-3 win against UNC Saturday.

Sooners Top Tar Heels in Game One of CWS Finals

June 20, 2026 | Baseball

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By: John Rohde

OMAHA, Neb. – Using a familiar recipe of superb pitching with some heavy-handed hitting, Oklahoma (42-22) is now one victory away from the program's third national title thanks to a 9-3 win against No. 5 North Carolina (53-13-1) in game one of the best-of-three championship series at the College World Series on Saturday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field.

Game Two will start at 1:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC.

A sellout crowd of 24,707 watched the Sooners stretch their season-long winning streak to nine games while collecting 14 hits against a heralded Tar Heels staff.

Sooners junior catcher Deiten Lachance blasted two home runs, giving him 18 in the last 32, accounting for his entire total for the 2026 season.

Afterward, OU coach Skip Johnson said Lachance has been "hitting balls as hard as anybody I've seen hit them in a long time."

Lachance (3-for-5, 3 RBIs) and junior centerfielder Dasan Harris (3-for-4) led the attack at the plate, while junior third baseman Camden Johnson (2-for-4), junior centerfielder Jason Walk (2-for-5, 2 RBI) and junior shortstop Jaxon Willits (2-for-5) added two hits each. Sophomore second baseman Kyle Branch (1-for-3) added a double for two RBIs.

OU has hit 28 home runs in 11 NCAA Tournament games. Harris has reached base in 21 straight games and Willits now has nine hits in four CWS games, tying Rick Gutierrez' record for an OU player at the series that was set during the Sooners' last national title season of 1994.

On the mound, OU freshman lefthanded starter Cord Rager (7-3) overcame a tough first inning, settling in and earning the victory before being relieved with a 7-3 lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning.

Junior lefty Gavyn Jones came on in relief and allowed two hits and struck out four in 2.1 scoreless innings while making his first CWS appearance.

In his ninth relief appearance of the season after making 12 starts, junior righthander LJ Mercurius closed out the game with 1.2 innings of hitless relief with two strikeouts.

"Our offense exploded and took the momentum back and just never gave it back," Johnson said. "Gavyn came in, did a great job. LJ finished it."

After Camden Johnson singled to right with one out in the top of the first inning, Lachance drilled an 84-mph changeup 402 feet over the wall in right-center to give OU a 2-0 lead.

The Tar Heels took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the inning, putting up four straight hits and sending eight batters to the plate. Rager would close out throwing four scoreless innings with five strikeouts and two walks on a season-high 100 pitches.

"What the game will tell you to do is just back away," Johnson said. "(It will) make you feel sorry for yourself at times, get away from throwing the ball to the target at times. Just got to stay with your routines. That's what I kept explaining to him (Rager). Use visualization to help you get through your innings. … That's a sign of a really good pitcher. That's the sign of somebody that's got a lot of grit, a lot of guts. That helped us a ton."

In a postgame interview on the field, Lachance said of Rager, "We know Cord is good. He did exactly what we wanted him to do. He was aggressive throwing in the (strike) zone. We just had to get that first out out of the way and I knew he was going to be great. He did awesome today."

On the opening pitch of the third inning, Walk ripped a 107.1-mph line drive that was snared at the top of the right-field fence, one foot shy of becoming his third home run in the last two games and fourth in 11 NCAA Tournament games.

Two batters later, on an 0-2 count with two outs, Lachance tomahawked a high-and-tight, 94-mph fastball over the left-field wall to tie the score at 3-3.

With one out in the fourth, junior left fielder Brendan Brock reached on a walk and advanced to third on a double down the right-field line from Harris. Branch drilled a two-out line drive to center to score Brock and Harris. It was Branch's first hit in Omaha.

After Branch stole second on a delayed steal and reached third on a wild pitch, he scored on Walk's short-hop single up the middle to make the score 6-3 and chased UNC ace Jason DeCaro (11-3), who was saddled for seven runs (all earned), one walk, two home runs and six strikeouts in 3.2 innings.

After Walk stole second, he scored on Johnson's single to right-center, pushing the Sooners' lead to 7-3.

Senior first baseman Dayton Tockey doubled down the right-field line to open the sixth and later scored on a single up the middle from Walk to give OU an 8-3 advantage.

The Sooners set the final margin with Johnson scoring in the top of the ninth as a steady rain fell. Today's game time had been moved up from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m. because of the anticipated rainstorm.

"Really proud of our team and what they did," Skip Johnson said. "And North Carolina's a really good team. And we picked a fight today. And they'll be ready for us tomorrow. We've just got to go out and execute pitches and do what we can to adjust through the game."

Pitchers of Record
Win: Cord Rager (7-3)
Loss: Jason DeCaro (11-3)

Statistical Snapshot
Deiten Lachance | 3-for-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI
Dasan Harris | 3-for-4, 2 2B
Jason Walk | 2-for-5, 2 RBI
Camden Johnson | 2-for-4, BB, RBI
Jaxon Willits | 2-for-5, 2B
Kyle Branch | 1-for-3, 2 RBI
Cord Rager | 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Gavyn Jones | 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K
LJ Mercurius | 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Notes

Oklahoma is making its fourth appearance in the College World Series finals and second in the era of three-game series. OU is now 3-2 in CWS finals games. The Sooners won single games in 1951 (3-2 over Tennessee) and 1994 (13-5 over Georgia Tech) and lost both games of the 2022 finals (10-3 and 4-2 to Ole Miss).
OU won its ninth game in a row and moved to 42-22 on the year.
During its nine-game winning streak, OU has won eight games against top-20 teams and six against top-10 teams.
This was Oklahoma's eighth win this postseason against a nationally seeded team, matching the record established by Fresno State (2008) and tied by Coastal Carolina (2016) for most wins against national seeds in a single NCAA Tournament.
This was the sixth all-time meeting between Oklahoma and North Carolina. The Sooners lead the series 4-2. All six meetings have come in the postseason (OU won twice in the 2010 Norman Regional and UNC won two of three games in the 2025 Chapel Hill Regional).
Oklahoma hit two home runs today, increasing it CWS total to 10 home runs. It is the most home runs through four CWS games at Charles Schwab Field (stadium opened in 2011).
Oklahoma has homered in 11 straight games, its longest streak of the season.
Five of OU's nine runs scored today came with two outs.
This was Oklahoma's 30th game this season with 10-plus hits. The Sooners have registered double-digit hits in nine of their last 11 games (all in the NCAA Tournament).
Oklahoma stole three bases in the top of the fourth inning, becoming just the second team to notch three stolen bases in a single half-inning of a CWS finals game (Michigan in 2019 was the other).
True freshman Cord Rager pitched 5.0 innings in the start, his second at the College World Series. He threw 7.0 shutout innings in OU's CWS opener vs. Alabama.
- In the CWS, he has pitched 12.0 innings and allowed three runs on eight hits with 13 strikeouts and just two walks.
- In four NCAA Tournament starts, Rager has pitched 24.0 innings and allowed six runs on 16 hits and just three walks and has notched 27 strikeouts.
Rager's three NCAA Tournament starts of 6-plus innings ranks third in the last four seasons, only to LSU's Paul Skenes and Kade Anderson, who had four such outings in 2023 and 2025, respectively. Rager is the only freshman among that group.
Rager has totaled 94 strikeouts over his 76.0 innings this season. He ranks second among OU freshman in strikeouts (Austin Mix had 95 in 2000) and third in innings pitched (behind Austin Mix, who pitched 106.0 innings in 2000 and Steve Connelly, who pitched 81.1 innings in 1993).
Oklahoma has started a true freshman on the mound in each of its four CWS games. Cord Rager (two starts), Xander Mercurius and Nick Wesloski have combined for 25.0 innings over four starts, allowing only five earned runs.
Junior Gavyn Jones made his College World Series debut on the mound and struck out four over 2.1 scoreless innings. His four strikeouts were a season high and tied his career high (also had four strikeouts at South Carolina on March 15, 2025).
Junior LJ Mercurius made his third CWS relief appearance and struck out two over 1.2 hitless frames to close the game.
Junior Deiten Lachance registered his second multi-home run game of the season. His other was against Tennessee on May 16 (three home runs).
- Six Sooners have games this season with multiple home runs (Lachance has two, Dasan Harris has two, Jason Walk has one, Camden Johnson has one, Brendan Brock has one and Drew Dickerson has one).
- Lachance, Walk and Harris each have multiple home run games in the College World Series, all in the last two games (Walk and Harris on June 17 vs. Georgia and Lachance today).
Lachance is just the fifth player to hit two home runs in a CWS Finals game, joining Florida's Ty Evans and Jac Caglianone (2023), Texas' Russell Modlenhauer (2009) and Fresno State's Steve Detwiler (2008).
Lachance leads the team with his 18 home runs and 68 RBI this season. All 18 of his home runs have come in the last 32 games since April 9, and 14 have come in 20 games since May 2. He has hit six home runs in 11 NCAA Tournament games and three in the CWS.
Lachance and right fielder Dasan Harris lead the Sooners with 17 RBI in the NCAA Tournament.
Kyle Branch's two-run single that gave OU the lead in the fourth inning represented his first hit in the CWS. He did not have a hit in his first 11 CWS at bats.
Dayton Tockey has registered three hits in the CWS (3 for 15) and all three have been doubles.
Since May 9 at Arkansas (17 games), Oklahoma has hit 45 home runs.
OU has scored 103 runs on 138 hits in its 11 NCAA Tournament games.
Walk extended his team-leading hitting streak to 13 games. Walk has reached base in 21 straight games and Jaxon Willits has a 17-game reached base streak.

Up Next
Oklahoma and No. 5-seed North Carolina will meet in the second game of the 2026 NCAA Men's College World Series finals at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The game will be televised on ABC.

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